The CEO of Gatwick Airport has said more needs to be done to stop drones from causing havoc at major airports.

Gatwick’s CEO Stewart Wingate’s statement, released this evening, follows almost 24 hours of chaos and confusion as sightings of drones around Gatwick Airport airspace meant all planes had to be grounded.

Government agencies are helping to track down the drones. Picture: Eddie Mitchell

He has confirmed there will not be any flights before 7pm tonight but many airlines – such as EasyJet - have already confirmed they have cancelled flights for the rest of today. It is not known how flights tomorrow will be affected.

Anger and frustration

In a statement Mr Wingate said those at Gatwick shared the ‘anger and frustration’ felt by passengers and confirmed that the illegal drone flights were designed to ‘close the airport and bring maximum disruption in the run up to Christmas’.

“We are working very closely with the police and the security services to try to resolve this for passengers,” he said. “We hope passengers appreciate that we must and will always prioritise their safety over everything else.

“We all recognise the urgent need to take the necessary steps that can lead to services getting back to normal as quickly as possible.”

This cannot happen again

The CEO has said that after the situation has resolved serious and quick discussions need to be held to prevent such a thing from happening again.

“Although not for today, these events obviously highlight a wider strategic challenge for aviation in this country which we need to address together with speed - the aviation industry, Government and all the other relevant authorities,” Mr Wingate said.

“It cannot be right that drones can close a vital part of our national infrastructure in this way. This is obviously a relatively new technology and we need to think through together the right solutions to make sure it cannot happen again. “In the meantime all our focus is on sorting the current challenge and getting services back to normal for passengers.

“At the moment, I am not in a position to say with certainty when that might be but everyone is doing whatever they can to help make that happen.”

Passengers are being urged to check the latest information on their flights directly with their airline or on the Gatwick website.